Two years later
The marketplace was hectic as ever.
Vendors and shopkeepers yelled, trying to attract attention towards themselves. Customers bustled through the wide pavement as they carried on with their shopping. The sun was sinking down the horizon, sneaking away from the dais and handing down the baton to the moon.
"Where is Ada?" Mrs. Smith, the Head Maid of the Monroe mansion asked.
The two maids looked at each other and shrugged.
"None of you know?" Mrs. Smith frowned.
They looked at each other and shrugged again.
"She simply vanished?" Mrs. Smith rubbed her forehead.
They turned their heads towards each other and—
Snap!
The sound of a thin stick beating against the ground made them look at the Head Maid, horrified.
"Shrug at me again with those shoulders and you will have no shoulders," Mrs. Smith warned, swaying the stick in the air.
Sarah was quick to ascertain the older woman of their obedience. Sincerely, she nodded. "I promise, ma'am. No shoulder shrugging. We will certainly find some other body part to shrug."
Mrs. Smith raised her stick again. Misa pulled away Sarah from the line of action of the skin tearing weapon.
"Ma'am—" She laughed nervously, a wide eyed Sarah in her grip."Why, of course, no shrugging. Not with shoulders, not with hands and certainly not with the hips," she said the last bit as a joke to lighten the mood.
"Of course not with hips!" Sarah pushed herself up as she exclaimed loudly. "Never with hips! That would be too much similar to Lady Beth shrugging at her female best friends. And we all know whatever follows involves no clothes—"
"What?" Mrs. Smith whispered harshly and the few pedestrians listening to them snickered, whispering among themselves as they cast them quick looks.
Misa half shrieked, half cried.
"Sarah is an idiot," she forcefully cackled and pulled Sarah behind her as Mrs. Smith tried to mask her terrorized expression.
"We will go and find Ada. Who knows if she is shrugging her hips at someone," Misa laughed awkwardly, trying to soothe Mrs. Smith's scarred ears, only to end up scarring the poor woman's soul.
"What?"
But the two were long gone, leaving a scandalized Mrs Smith standing by the carriage in their wake.
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"Where has she gone?" Misa asked to herself.
"Nowhere where we searched for her," Sarah answered.
"What if she is shrugging her hips at someone?" Misa joked.
"Quite possible. There is a red light area around the corner—"
"There she is!" Misa cut her off and pointed ahead.
A dark, slouching figure walked towards them. Wading through the swarm of people, it trudged on. Gingerly, nervously, hunching as if wishing to disappear.
The diffused orange light from the vanishing sun was just enough for Sarah and Misa to recognize the oily strands of strawberry blonde hair of Ada. It was indisputably her— the rough-looking, mossy green eye patch sitting snug on her left eye was proof enough.
"Ada! My Goddess, it is a blessing we found you here!" Sarah shouted, waving her hand at the girl.
"The red light area is quite crowded, especially during the evening, it would have been a chore to spot you." She continued screaming and dashed away before Misa could physically force her to quiet down.
Sarah ran towards the clueless and bewildered Ada who was looking left and right in embarrassment. People stopped and gawked at both the girls, their faces contorting into masks of repulsion. Some laughed and giggled. A mother, who was passing by Ada and made eye contact with her, gasped and covered her child's ear. Flushed, Ada jerked her head left to right frantically.
"No, no, no— it's nothing like that—"
"Healthiest tomatoes would blush if they could see how red you are," Sarah said, laughing and holding Ada's forearm. "Exerted yourself much?" She wiggled her eyebrows and Ada looked down, pulling up the scarf tied around her neck to hide her burning face.
"Sarah, hush! What are you saying?" Misa clamped Sarah's mouth shut with her palms from behind. Ada's one good eyelid, the right one, blinked rapidly. Then she let out a big sigh and adjusted the makeshift eye patch on her grey and non functioning eye.
Sarah remained unbothered.
"We two were discussing how you could be—"
"Sarah, stop." Misa snapped shut Sarah's muffled rambling.
"We must leave. Mrs Smith is livid."
Misa held their forearms, one girl in grip of each of her palm.
Just how I like it. She thought and giggled, earning questioning looks from the two.
Dragging both the girls behind her, Misa made way towards the carriage, shoving people out of the way like an elephant on rampage.
On their way back, Sarah ogled on the food stalls and grumbled to herself as they blurred past her.
Ada, on the other hand, bit her lips. She let Misa guide her to the carriage. Her gaze was stuck on the ground as her free hand clutched the side of her gown. Then, an unintelligible urge to scratch at her burnt cheek gnawed her guts. She let her nails scrap against the left side of her face, before she poked around the eye patch. Letting her head fall down to her side, she grabbed her gown again. But her hands itched to touch her eye patch and cheek again.
Moon was slowly ascending up in the dark sky with its band of fellow stars. The stars, they twinkled like gems, like snow crystals shining at a distance. Ada willed one of them to grant her mercy. To take in account her pitiful condition, grace her with their scintillating presence— then hit her on the head. Not hard enough to blast her head, but enough to injure her. A wide sea of possibilities awaited her to exploit after that. She could pretend to forget everything. She could—
No! Ada screamed mentally as her mind fabricated various scenarios, various aftermaths. Anything. Everything. But a plausible excuse. Something new. To say, 'I forgot the way' was getting old and boring. And suspicious since she has been frequenting the market bimonthly for past one year.
"Where were you?" Mrs Smith shouted as soon as the girls came in sight.
"I forgot the way," Ada answered without dropping a beat.
"Classic excuse."
"Boring as well," Mr. Thompson, the butler who was sitting in the carriage the whole time, piped in.
That is what I thought, but too late now.
"I still demand an honest answer when we get back to the mansion." Mrs Smith narrowed her eyes at Ada, making her scratch her left, scorched cheek nervously and cower behind Sarah's big frame.
"Quick, hop in the carriage, we are late. Running errands should not consume this much time— Ada where is your basket?"
"Oh, ma'am." Ada hastily produced an empty basket hiding beneath the faded blue shawl she had wrapped around herself. She held it in her right hand and extended it towards the Head Maid.
"None of the items Young Master demanded were available here. One of the shopkeepers told that only in the noon market of Val is it possible to find these."
"That's a week later. Young Master is going to throw a fit." Mrs Smith sighed. "Come on, in." She waved her hand at the girls, gesturing at the carriage.
Misa and Ada were quick to get in as the butler helped them up. He offered his palm to the Head Maid. She extended her hand to take a hold of it-
"After you," Sarah said but did not wait a second for picking up Mrs Smith from behind by her underarms. Ignoring the old woman's shrieks, she calmly placed her inside gently. Mr Thompson was surprised and fell back into the seat of the carriage as Misa and Ada held him.
Adjusting his monocle, he glared at the ever enlightened Sarah who smiled brightly at him. He scoffed, then hopped down the carriage and sat in the front to get hold of the reins.
Ada and Misa glanced at each other and shook their heads.
"What are you doing?" Mrs Smith gasped and sat down opposite to Ada, "A warning would be nice!"
"It's too high for your bad knees." She was about to shrug her shoulders then stopped remembering the threat thrown before. She climbed in and sat beside Mrs Smith, across Misa.
"My knees work just fine," Mrs Smith said, huffing and turned her head to look outside. Her cheeks were tinted red, Ada noticed, as the diffused light of the torches binded to the poles along the road illuminated her grey hair through the white curtains.
"They crack like a thunderbolt every time you climb stairs, missus." Mr Thompson slid open the small flap and peered in from outside. "Shall we move?"
"Yes," Mrs Smith huffed again and Mr Thompson nodded before cracking the whip and jolting the horses into action.
A/N: Okay, so whoever has read the previous version, Ada may or may not have friends in this one. Do tell me if you guys liked them, I swear I won't kill them off lol.
Vote and comment if you liked the chapter! Thanks for reading xD